In New Jersey, child support is based on a formula established by statute. The primary factors are:

• The parent’s income levels.
• Their number of children.
• The amount of overnight parenting time each parent exercises.

The Court aims to allocate the cost of raising children between both parents. It uses broad research and a series of specific factors to do this.

Income

New Jersey law stipulates that parents must pool their incomes to support their children. This money is needed to cover all child-raising costs, including food, clothing, and shelter. The goal is to replicate the financial status if the parents had stayed together and never separated.

Once the CIS is completed, the Court takes the amount of each parent’s net income and adds it together. They then examine the guidelines chart and determine the initial child support award. The charts consider union dues, taxes, health insurance, child care, and other expenses.

Parents with significant additional or unique expenses may be required to pay more than the basic guideline amount. It includes childcare, extracurricular activities, children’s cell phone bills, and car expenses. Modifying child support Red Bank NJ is feasible, but doing so necessitates navigating challenging legal processes and making strong arguments. It is often helpful to have an attorney provide insight into how the process works and help prepare documentation.

Custody

When a married couple divorces and they have children, the spouse who does not have residential custody or “custodial parent” may be ordered to pay child support to the other spouse. The amount of support will depend on many factors, including the parents’ incomes, the percentage of shared parenting time, and travel expenses for visitation time with the children.

The courts generally use New Jersey’s established guidelines to determine the appropriate level of child support payments. The first step is installing the parents’ combined net incomes. It includes wages, self-employment, tips and bonuses, alimony, investments, and other sources of income. Deductions are often made for taxes, mandatory union dues, and additional costs.

Child support is meant to help a custodial parent provide for the children’s basic needs, including food, shelter, and clothing. The parent paying child support must not misuse the funds for personal expenses. Any unauthorized expenditures can result in sanctions from the Court and may even lead to arrest.

Child Support Guidelines

Child support is based on the idea that each parent should be entitled to the money it takes to raise their child or children. The Court uses specific guidelines that consider parental net incomes and certain deductions, including taxes, to determine this amount. These amounts are adjusted for parenting time (sole vs. shared custody) and visitation (if applicable).

The primary guideline percentage is added to the noncustodial parent’s share of health care, childcare, and educational expenses. It gives the Court a presumptive amount to award in most cases. This presumption can only be overcome by showing that applying the guidelines is inappropriate or unjust.

However, there are many situations where a child support award based on the guidelines isn’t appropriate. These include:

1. When the parties exercise a valid 50/50 custody arrangement.
2. When one of the parents is living below the poverty guidelines or has a highly high combined net income.
3. When a child is over age 18 and lives away at college.

Health Insurance

The cost of health insurance premiums for the children is factored into a support calculation. However, a child support amount is not included in medical expenses such as deductibles and co-payments. Parents must pay these expenses.

In a typical child support case, the gross income of both parents is added together and divided by two to determine a percentage share of each parent’s available net resources. Then, the weekly cost of work-related child care expenses and the weekly cost of the children’s health insurance premium are added to the basic child support allocation amount to arrive at a total child support obligation.

Parents are obligated to keep their children covered by health insurance and are subject to criminal penalties and civil consequences for failing to do so. Fortunately, the New Jersey Department of Human Services can help enforce court-ordered child support by withholding payments from paychecks, intercepting tax refunds, and reporting delinquent parents to credit bureaus.